Fiber cables are shipped to various storage yards around the country as new fiber routes are installed. Those reels often must stand out in the open air for years before they are used by the installation crews. In addition, spare restoration reels are stored out in the open air as well. Those reels are placed around the country and are used in the event of a cable failure.
Fiber cable reels will typically have up to 40,000 feet of fiber (up to 800 fiber count). Each reel of cable therefore represents a substantial investment by the utility company owning the cable stock.
The reels are most commonly constructed of wood, although plastic and steel reels are known. The reels have flanges on each end protruding from a central spool. An arbor hole extends through the spool along its axis. The fiber cable is wrapped on the spool between the flanges in an even manner, so the diameter of the outside circumferential surface of the fiber cable is substantially constant between the flanges.
The stored reels are often subjected to very high temperatures (120 degrees F.) and to very low temperatures (−20 to −30 degrees F.). That harsh environment may degrade the transmission performance and longevity of the fiber cable, and may even destroy the cable. Spare fiber reels are therefore sometimes stored under cover of buildings to protect the fiber from those extremes of temperature, resulting in substantial additional costs. Often, such storage is not available, especially during the installation of fiber routes.
Optical fiber cable manufacturers will sometimes ship the fiber cable with a plastic or cardboard cover. That cover does not stand up to harsh weather and high temperatures, and generally does little to protect the fiber cable from the effects of temperature.
There is therefore presently a need for device and a method for protecting bulk fiber cable stored on reels. The device should preferably be reusable, and should stand up to outdoor conditions as well as protect the fiber optic cable from outdoor temperature extremes. To the inventors' knowledge, there is currently no such apparatus or method currently employed to satisfactorily accomplish that task.